CPU - I guess the intel Dual Core2 E6400. I could of said 6300 but thats only $20 cheaper so no point. $187. If you wait till the specials hit in july/august, the quad core intel Q6600 I think it is, is jumping down from $500 to $230. Ofcourse thats an extra $50 so maybe leave that for a future upgrade. Ofcourse the cpu I'm recommending could possibly go down by then.

GPU - This ones a strange one. It'll be your choice entirely. I'm going to recommend the 8800GTS because theres no point buying a cheaper card and then getting the dx10 card later in the year or next year. You'll be wasting it on the cheaper card so zero need. Now theres two ways you can go, the 32mb version or the 640mb version.

You ask whats the difference between both. With most games very little. The two big engines from Valve and ID run the same, no clue about the Unreal 3 engine but I'd suspect it would be no different. Theres only a few games that have a big incease with the 640mb and thats Neverwinter Nights 2, company of heroes, and a couple others. They bounce anywhere from 10fps more to 30fps. Heres a link with mroe info

As for motherboard, thats a messy one altogether right now. Theres so many ways of going. This is one I'd suggest thats very stable, has a great layout and good cooling control, plenty of room, and a very high list of future upgrade potential in cpu.

$145 for this one. Its the 650i chipset. The newer one with more features is the 680i, but you're going to be going into the mid $200s if you do that. Board already has ethernet usb stuff on it.

I'm not touching the tower however. You need to be careful with those cause the 8800GTS/GTX wont fit in some. Theres a list somewhere of cases that have the room, I'll have to look for it. But make sure the powersupply you pick is 650watts or higher.

Also remember theres rebates all over the place for the stuff above. So we come to...
lol $720 or $780 depending on card. Not counting rebates but maybe that'll go down $100. Ofcourse I'm not adding in postage. The case and powersupply combo will most likely reach $200 at most.

Yeah thats a bit expensive. However its a setup that should give you full detail in practically every game for the next 2-3 years with zero problem. Lower a couple details and the pc is set for 4years. I'd be interested in how dx10 games perform on vista with 2 of 4gigs of ram though. Also if you really want you could spend around $150 or something on a good dx9 card, but really thats only $100 or so less. No point if you're gonna replace it in 6-8months.

Thats just way too much effort I did there...

i forgot to say well done with this post. i'll most likely end up ordering almost all of these parts. can't really find better and i've been looking around since i lost my laptop. may get an hddvd drive but haven't done any research on them yet, and as for the tower i'm debating between a few that will fit the 8800

For the hddvd drive, you can just buy the one thats for the 360 and plug it into your monitor. Works the same. Saw my friend using it. Although he did have an lcd monitor with extra conntectors in the side of it.

*ordering stuff as i type. in your opinion is the DDR2 800 worth the extra $40 or should i go with the linked 675 for $79?

*also thinking of maybe ordering something like a p4 which i can get for say $40, last me a month, and then get the quad core. otherwise i'm going to have a heap of parts just sitting around and no processor at all.